If you have difficulties in living a normal life because you have Fibromyalgia, you should have known that it comes with ongoing and bad signs. Do not be miserable and ashamed due to the side effects and signs that you feel, however you will be embarrassed when you do not remember your words while in a meeting due to brain fog, or rather you fall down and throw down the dishes you have while in the Kitchen because of the sudden pain you experienced.
Every patient of Fibromyalgia have various symptoms they suffer from, therefore discussing the ungraceful symptoms it brings is necessary, so that we can make people know how to solve this complex ailment when they have them. For this reason, Mighty Community while trying to proffer a solution went public with some symptoms of Fibromyalgia that they have experienced that caused them embarrassment. The symptoms are kept from the public majority of the time but they are worth considering and demystifying regardless.
One major symptoms of Fibromyalgia is Fibro fog and the adverse effects of taking a medication can lead to emotional, physical as well as cognitive problems. If you are passing through any one of the mentioned symptoms, you should know that there are other people too who feel the same way.
These are the details that mighty community discussed and submitted about their individual Fibromyalgia symptoms.
1). Brain Fog
“Fibro Fog is the worst for me. There is no other embarrassing feeling than being on the phone with someone, or generally anybody, and I kept on filling up my words due to the fact that I have issues sorting out the proper words needed to express myself, while in a conversation Post-it notes and reminders are just what I use for almost everything.” – Bee E.
“Being unable to comprehend what somebody is talking about and subsequently appearing disrespectful for telling them to repeat themselves several times due to the fact that your brain processes their words as gibberish.” – Dani S.
“The brain fog for sure. It is embarrassing to me to lose grip on my thoughts in the middle of a conversation and not be able to talk to my peers in an intelligent manner or totally not remember what was told to me by someone. It is painful.” – Molly S.
2). Excessive Sweating
“To me, it is sweating too much for no just cause. The fact that you cannot regulate the temperature of your body can be frustrating.” – Rachel P.
“Sweating! Any little move that I make and I become excessively hot and my face is covered in sweat. At work, I am everywhere and I am in flames. It is cold outside, the other ladies have an additional heater close to them and I am here dying with a fan in my face!” – Christina K.
“As a woman of 27 years of age having both endometriosis and Fibromyalgia, I frequently undergo some really torturing intensely hot flashes. It embarrasses me to start cooling myself with a fan suddenly or removing certain clothes just to minimize the discomfort.” – Emily G.
3). Cancelling my plans all the time
“One of the parts that embarrasses me the most is that I have to cancel my plans because I am indisposed to leave the house. Subsequently, people begin to call you all sorts of stereotypes.” – Lauren H.
“It is an embarrassing thing for me to cancel lots of plan without any initial notice. The tiredness/pain is beyond my control in some days that I end up cancelling some activities I really wanted to carry out” – Jan S.P.
4). Sensory organs go into overdrive
“Where lots of people are trying to talk at the same the noise gets to me that I get stressful reaction in my head. It makes me want to explode. I find it different to hide its effects on me.” – Annie T.
“One thing I would not be able to do anymore is to watch my favourite show ‘Price is Right.” The noise and constant screaming becomes too much. And it is getting to the point where watching it is unbearable unlike what it used to be.
5). Exhaustion
“I don’t have the sufficient energy sometimes to perform simple chores around the house or some days of waking up and leaving the bed to interact with the kids becomes impossible.”Skye L,
“The state of completely lacking energy to do anything. I know that it is the fibro. Other people see me as being lazy.” – Michelle P.
“The tiredness. If it happens, I will need to sit down as soon as possible, regardless of my location.” – Lisa T.
6). Changes in Weight
“I am completely tired of gaining too much weight. I deal with the added weight and it embarrassed me when I see people who use to know me prior to the weight gain.” – Leach M.
7). Gastrointestinal Issues
“Gastrointestinal problems. I have the feeling of awkwardness when I tell the doctors about the symptoms that are GI-related. It could be diarrhea, constipation or nausea.” –Mattie M.
“I do have diarrhea. The problems I have with my stomach constantly affects my life. I had to take a sit and watch people eat during the past Thanksgiving celebration. Due to the diarrhea, I was very scared to eat anything. It seem to end. At times, I stay for days without having to eat anything due to it.” – Melissa G.
“IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and everything that comes with it. I avoided some foods due to the fact that I have become sensitive to these foods. Not just due to the symptoms that came with it, which are embarrassing, but headaches, flame ups and cramps that follows after you eat a “supposedly food that is bad.” – Ashley A.
8). Pains of the leg and lower back
“The pains of the leg and back. I can neither sit, walk or stand for slightly more than half an hour in a single time. I move constantly whenever I am standing. It is either I do that or I will have to find something to lean on. People call you lazy, but it just seems that I am going to collapse.” Means N.
“I love it when I am active and visit places with friends such as the amusement parks or zoos. However if I am in a place in which I am walking a lot, it is embarrassing to take breaks due to my hips and knees. At age 23, my mates get annoyed that I have to stop, and sometimes I get concerning looks from elderly people or remarks such as “Young people usually have such pains.” Typically, I tend to push myself forward as much as I care, but it worsens the pain which forces me to take a break eventually.” – Shelby C.
9). Urticaria/Rashes
“The red hot rash that affects my neck due to thin air. At times, it is just on a spot, at times it is everywhere. When it is not on a spot, people tend to think that I do have hickeys. It is sort of embarrassing.” – Kristina K.F.
10). Problems of balance and dizziness
“It affects my balance. It has worsened and I have actually fallen off sometimes when I would have saved myself – the incident outside my friends house right into the flower bed was the most disturbing as she became shocked (Have no clue about what is wrong with me).” – Lisa B.
11). Being hypersensitive to stimulus of the sensory organs
“My poor response to heat, smoke and odours. For instance, I am suitably dressed and ready to attend a social activity, then I get this feeling of weird discomfort which brings along excessive sweating and feelings of light headedness because of the heat that is affecting my body. Include the smoke or kitchen smell, whether at a restaurant or in the house; I stand barbecues. If I try to have fun, my body stops me and people often regard me as one that spoils or the fun or just been too fussy.” – VeeVee Y.
12). Sensitivity to temperature
“I get cold every time. Texas is where I live in. I put on sweaters in the summers too. Furthermore I have to take with me a jacket every where I go. It could be more than 100 degrees outside and the AC is at full blast and I am sitting somewhere trying to get my hands warm so as to feel them.” – Kristi R.
13). Pain and muscle twitches all over
“Spasms. The twitching almost becomes persistent, some of them are severe and you get funny looks from people, because your body can’t be controlled by you.” – Rhian S.
“The random spasms of the back makes it hard for me to walk while I am in the store shopping. I hate being stared at by everyone.
“I get muscle spasms that are random. It makes me drop thing most times.” – Danika S.
14). The state of having “sniffles”
The persistent cough/sniffles/dry mouth that are caused by my meds. It is really weird to be in some places and be sniffling and coughing. When I carried my sisters newborn baby I had the babyin my hand and was sniffling and people thought that I had an ailment and am carrying a newborn! No! Sorry, the meds I take make me sound that way!” – Garnet D.
15). Sensitivity of the skin to the touch
“When someone tries touching me, I flinch all the time because I know the pain will be severe.” – Amanda P.
“The time I beg people not to hug me in saying hello or goodbye because the pain can be unbearable.” – Audrey M.
16). Speech Problems
“Being unable to talk. I tend not to remember my words, stumble over the words, and talk gibberish. The worse thing is that I look after children and their parents just stare at me at times and I appear rather silly for the inability to smoothly express myself. In fact typing this, I have spent close to 15 minutes because I had to recheck and correct some words that were misspelt severely or lack any sense.” – Marissa’s E.
“My words get mixed up and they come out in a weird way. I get silly looks from people because some times the word sound stupid. The worst of them is fibro fog. At some point, instead of saying donuts, I say something like potatoes. It was very embarrassing.” – Eloise T.
“Brain The time that I forget the words. You can be staring at a thing and you are not able to remember its name.
17). Urinary incontinence
“Incontinence! It embarrassed me, most of the time I have to put on panty liners. And apart from that, I get bladder cramps occasionally. Unexpectedly and from nowhere, because of the bladder cramps, I have had to go to the toilet. It has made me have accidents.” – Morgan V
At every cycle of 15 minutes, I urinate. I was thinking it was my fault, I never knew it is due to the fibro! I hate road trips!” – Shelby L.S.
18). Emotional Sensitivity
“With the pain, if it is severe, it makes me angry- I tend to direct my anger to the pain, others and myself. I tend to let my colleagues know that on a bad day, that anytime I get overwhelmed with crying or get irritated, it is not because of them, the pain causes it.” – Trista G.
19). Sudden pain forcing me to react
‘The symptoms that embarrasses me the most is the shooting pains that are sudden making me to change my expressions and stop my activity, even if I am with my family or in the office. Each time it occurs everybody sees the abrupt change and wonder because I still appear healthy and fine.’ – Katherine L.
“An abrupt shooting pain that overwhelms me. I can be having a perfect day and the pain which is sharp comes, making me wince or sometimes cry out painfully.” – DeAnna A.C.
“When there is a sudden shut down in my body or the moment I can’t get out of the sofa without having to grunt embarrassingly. I occasionally check if people realize just the amount of effort I spend doing these things” – Terri S.A.
20). Tiredness
“The tiredness. I am not able to do a thing for a longtime or I become so tired that it tends to become painful if my eyes are open. I had to leave work early and it has not been easy. I usually sleep to avoid those symptoms during the day.” – Kirsten M.R.
“Tiredness and staying alone. Fibromyalgia makes me severely tired and as a result, I stay away from others because I feel embarrassed due to the fact that I am unable to do activities such as meeting family to have dinner and meeting friends after working for a long time. ” – Koroleva V.
